Over 625,000 students are benefiting from the central government-funded Mid Day Meal Scheme in 15,197 schools of Himachal Pradesh, an official said here Sunday.

Over 625,000 students are benefiting from the central government-funded Mid Day Meal Scheme in 15,197 schools of Himachal Pradesh, an official said here Sunday.

A sum of Rs.100 crore has been earmarked for the nutrition scheme during this fiscal, state elementary education department director Ashok Sharma said in a statement.

He said, "About 80 percent of the funds for the scheme would be provided by the government of India."

"The scheme was started for the students of primary schools Sep 1, 2004, and for upper primary schools (class 6-8) July 1, 2008, in all government and government aided schools," a government spokesperson said.

The elementary education department has constituted school management committees (SMCs) in all the schools for effective implementation of the scheme. High calorific value food is being cooked in the separate constructed kitchen-cum-stores in the schools and served to the students.

A total of 14,959 kitchen-cum-stores have been sanctioned for this purpose, of which 13,638 have been completed, he said.

Currently, 23,793 cook-cum-helpers have been engaged by the SMCs to cook the food, 80 percent of them are women.

Ingredients used for cooking, food grain, pulses, vegetables, cooking oil and condiments are being procured at the school level by the SMCs. This has helped the teachers to concentrate on their regular teaching job.

"In the interest of environmental protection, smokeless 'chullah' are being preferred and 84 schools have LPG connections. Water purifiers are being made available in the schools in a phased manner," said the spokesperson.